Random thoughts on a June day

When I was in the hospital, and was looking for something to worry about, my favorite thing was how I would manage two small children, especially when it was time to feed Gabi. For the most part I was right, it is my most challenging time, although to be honest it isn't usually as bad as I thought it would be. This morning, however, it was pretty nice. Planning is everything. Feeding time was coming up, and Rachel was occupying herself with playing with some of the food in the pantry. I didn't think it would last forever, though, so I prepared the computer with her little game that she got for Christmas last year from her Aunt Trish, and I put a few of her books on the sofa next to me. It worked perfectly. After she was done with the food she came over to the computer and enjoyed it for a while, then she joined me on the couch, sprawled across the cushions and read her books. By the time she was done, so was I.

Rachel is such a great big sister. Gabi was in the bouncy seat, and she started crying. Rachel came over to her, gave her a kiss, patted her head, and tried to give her the pacifier. She is so sweet. I love my girls.

We got Rachel a tricycle. It arrived today. Paul Teutul Jr. doesn't have anything on me (American Chopper reference), I assembled the trike with a baby strapped to by chest. I did it during Rachel's nap, so when she woke up she had a fun surprise. She really enjoyed it a lot.


The trike is good, but so is the box it came in.


This is what Gabi thought of all the excitement.

Busy Weekend

Friday - Gabi turned 6 weeks old, and Jeff and I celebrated our 5th anniversary. That evening Brian and Amber came over and watched Rachel and Gabi, and Jeff and I went out to dinner. Then we bought a dining room table and four chairs from some friends who are moving away. The timing was perfect, as our chairs were breaking down pretty bad, and we needed new ones. So now we have them. They are perfect.


Saturday evening we went to a get together to say good-bye to the same friends who are moving away that we got the table and chairs from. It was a very nice evening with friends, and the several kids that were there were very well behaved, and played together very nicely. The grown ups played Mario Kart and Guitar Hero on the Wii.

Sunday (today) we went to a NICU reunion. I guess that every year the NICU has a reunion where the little kids and their families get together. They had Graeter's Ice Cream, face painting, dress-up, an inflatable bouncy toy. The guest of honor (Gabi) didn't really fully appreciate the party, but she did get lots of compliments for being so cute. Rachel had a lot of fun, but she didn't like waiting in line so much. She had her face painted, she dressed up as a cheerleader and got her picture taken, she played in bubbles, she played in the inflatable bouncy, she ate ice cream and she drank (or rather spilled on herself) an entire water bottle. She puts her upper lip around the lid, but her lower lip inside the lid. That's kind of opposite of how it's supposed to be done. The result was a very wet front. She didn't care, though. After all, it was pretty hot. When we got home she got a bath, and she liked that too.


You can see in the picture that Rachel has blue lips. That is from the lollipop she got when she had her face painted.

Summer Living

Yesterday I thought it would be fun to cool off a bit in the pool. I put the slide in the pool to add to the fun. Rachel thought it was pretty cool and enjoyed the pool sliding. I wanted to take a movie of it to share, but unfortunately Rachel is no longer content being the subject of photography, and now wants to be the family photographer. In the first movie you can see that when she realized that the camera was running, she quit her sliding project and tried to take over the filming.



After I was able to distract her away from the camera she returned to swimming and sliding. This time I was smart and I filmed her out of her line of sight and we were successful.



I took Gabi back to the pediatrician today to check her weight. She had not been gaining enough, so I started supplementing her nursing with a bottle a week and a half ago. Well, it worked. Gabi now weighs in at 6 lbs 8.5 oz. She gained 13.5 oz. since her last visit 8 days ago. That's pretty good.

While we were at the doctor's office, Gabi got a shot. Thanks to my friend Holly I had the perfect antidote to her crying. I was ready to feed her immediately, so she only cried for just a few seconds. Like me, food makes her feel better. See the band aid on her skinny little leg?


See it better now?


Yesterday I got a few gifts for Gabi from some of the women in my barbershop chorus (Pride of Kentucky). A couple of them included gifts for Rachel too, so now I have two matching outfits for Rachel and Gabi. I showed Rachel's to her this morning, and she wanted to wear it right away, so I let her. I wanted to wait until Sunday so she could wear it to church, but I figured they could wear them again on Sunday.


The second outfit is actually just a shirt. Rachel's should fit her right away, but Gabi's won't fit her for a few more months.

Gabi is supposed to be born today.

Today was Gabi's due date. But it's too late. She is already born. We both had doctor's appointments today. I just had a follow up visit with my doctor, but Gabi's appointment was a little more interesting. Premature babies are at risk for retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) which, as I understand it, is the formation of scar tissue on the retina, that can, if left untreated, result in blindness. But it is easily treated with lasers. When Gabi was discharged from the NICU I was instructed to see a pediatric opthmologist to have her screened for ROP. We were instructed to wait until now, which obviously we did. So after all that background information, Gabi does not have ROP (no scar tissue). I guess the more premature, the greater the risk. The doctor said that she is still at risk for two other eye issues. One is being cross eyed, and the other is amblyopia, also known as lazy eye. It will be a little while before we can find out if either of those are problems.

Tonight we went to the playground at Moser Farm. There is a big rock there that Rachel discovered is a great place to climb. I guess Rachel is going to be a rock climber too. I really wish that I had brought my camera to catch it, but Rachel climbed up the rock, then I help her climb down, over and over (and over and over) again. Then she took to sitting down. It was funny because she sat down, then scratched her bottom on the rock, then stood up and sat down somewhere else and scratched her bottom on the rock again. She did it several times. It was kind of funny.

A lady showed up at the playground and told me about another playground that she said was really good for somebody Rachel's age. It is at Norton Commons. I don't know where that is. She explained (sort of) where it is, and I think one of these days we will try to find it. Should be fun.

Today Gabi is 5 weeks old

Today Gabi is 5 weeks old. Not last night, but the night before she mostly slept through the night. She went to sleep at about 12:00 midnight, and I woke her up at 6:30 to feed her. Last night was pretty good too. She went to sleep a bit after 10:00, and woke up (on her own) at around 4:30 for a feeding. I have mixed feelings about her sleeping so long. On the one hand I love it. 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep is nice, but on the other hand she has not been gaining weight like she should have, so I wonder if it would be more responsible of me to wake her up after 4 hours to feed her.

There are three things that I think factor in to her sleeping so well. First she is eating more because of my supplementing her feedings. I really hope that as her corrected gestational age gets to 40 to 42 weeks her strength will be such that she can transfer adequate milk on her own, and I won't have to do it forever. Second (and third) has to do with swaddling her. When I use normal receiving blankets to swaddle her they are both thin and small. I have been using a larger blanket so I can swaddle her more securely, and it also happens to be thicker, so I think that her more secure swaddling, and the fact she is warmer, are the 2nd and 3rd reasons why she sleeps better at night.


I have a request to make of all of you who are more creative in the kitchen than I am. I really want to do a better job of feeding my family. My goals are 1. more variety, 2. more healthy (at least a little bit). My problems are that I have no kitchen creativity, and no skill in the kitchen, other than the ability to read instructions (that aren't too complicated), and I'm trying to juggle a toddler and an infant. So please give me some ideas of EASY (and I mean really easy), quick menu ideas. I need breakfast, lunch and supper ideas.

Gabi Goes to the Doctor (the sequel)

Today was Gabi's 1 month check-up. Here are her vital statistics:

height: 19 inches (5%)
weight: 5 lbs. 11 oz. (OTC↓)
head: 13 inches (OTC↓)

So here is a long story. Gabi went 9 days without a poopie (the layman's term for a bowel movement). I kept in touch with the pediatricians office to keep them informed, as well as seeking advice. Finally last Saturday they had me come to the office to check things out. It turns out that Gabi is not transferring adequate milk when nursing. So I was advised to nurse, then supplement with a bottle, then pump (in order to increase my milk supply). In all likelihood, the reason why Gabi is not getting enough milk when nursing is probably because she is a preemie, and hopefully as she gets bigger and stronger this will cease to be an issue. The doctor also gave her a rectal exam, which got things moving (so to speak), and on Saturday she pooped a weeks worth. I was strangely happy to see all that poop after over a week without any, but then she didn't poop again on Sunday or Monday. Fortunately today she pooped (twice) without any outside assistance. The doctor told me today that it isn't that strange for her to go for several days without pooping, but over a week is definitely too long. Probably the inadequate feeding was the reason. I did notice that when I was no longer starving Gabi, she was a lot more content, and sleeps better at night.

Wow, that was a lot of talk about poop. I hope you enjoyed it.

Because Gabi has not gained as much weight as she should have, the doctor wants me to bring her back in next week to be weighed again, after going for a while with the supplementing, so I should have more updates next week.

Here are a few pictures from today.

Rachel loves giving hugs and kisses to Gabi.


I used to think reading to Rachel was such a waste of time. She didn't seem to care. I sure don't think that anymore. Rachel really loves books, and really likes it when we read to her. (This picture is actually from yesterday.)


Here is the whole family enjoying some refreshing milk. Daddy is holding Gabi who is enjoying a supplemental bottle of milk (provided generously by me), and Rachel is enjoying a cup of milk herself.

Gabi is 4 weeks old

I can't believe it has already been four weeks. Here is Gabi at the ripe old age of four (weeks). She's even holding up 4 fingers.


And then there's Rachel. She is taking up photography.

Working it out

While I still maintain that two is much (much) harder than one, I'm starting to get the hang of it. Of course as soon as I say that something will happen, but for now things are going okay.

Yesterday in the afternoon we went swimming. It was a lot of fun. Rachel loves the water. I will be more at ease when she actually knows how to swim, but that will likely take a while.

Today I wanted to go to the zoo, but the weather this morning turned out to be very rainy, so we went to the Science Museum with Grandma instead. It was pretty good, but unfortunately the Kids Zone had some problems, where there were some terrible chemical fumes, so it was closed. Instead we went to the different exhibits. Rachel seemed to enjoy them. Several of them were more geared towards older kids, but that didn't stop her from experimenting. By the time we left the Kids Zone was reopened, but it was too late. We were out of there.

We came home and Rachel took a nice nap (and so did I). Jeff went down to Scout Camp to help out tonight and tomorrow, and I didn't look forward to managing the night with both kids on my own, so we went to Grandma's house. We ate spaghetti, and played with the toys. We got home around 9:30, and Rachel went straight to bed. I hope Jeff enjoys his time at Scout Camp, but we look forward to him being home again.

Here are a couple of pictures of the girls from the past few days.

Rachel after playing in the inflatable pool in our backyard.


Gabi chillin' in the bouncy seat.

Gabi is 3 weeks old

Today Gabi is 3 weeks old. I promise she does not sleep 24 hours a day. (I only wish she would.) She only sleeps when I want to take a picture of her. Note the classic Bateman cowlick she is sporting.


Rachel is the best breakfast eater. This morning we had eggs and toast. I put grape jelly on Rachel's toast this morning, and I think she approved.


We went to a park to play. Rachel had a great time. Gabi stayed snuggled in my baby carrier. (Thanks Faline and Ladawn. The ERGObaby carrier is getting another opportunity to serve.) The swings are my favorite because it requires that I merely stand and push Rachel. She liked them too, but she also enjoyed climbing on the jungle gym. I don't quite trust Rachel to use excellent judgment, so I followed her around. That was harder work for me. But she enjoyed the morning there.

A Day in the Life

Today was very rainy. I was worried that keeping Rachel occupied in the house would prove to be difficult, but I was wrong. She had a very good morning. While I was occupied washing dishes and whatnot, Rachel was occupied removing all of the books from the lowest two shelves of the bookshelf, and put them all in the laundry basket.

For lunch I made tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. I made Rachel's first so that it could cool down adequately. When I made my sandwich I forgot to put cheese in it, so I had a grilled bread sandwich. I might be losing my mind, just a little.

I often blame poor Rachel for the destruction that regularly occurs in the house. Today she at least partially proved me wrong. She pulled out a broom and started "sweeping" the kitchen floor.


Later tonight she did a really good job of picking up her toys and putting them away. She is such a good girl.

Gabi is sweet and cute, as usual.